Kemal Kilicdaroglu, main challenger of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, held his final rally in Ankara on Friday (May 12) two days before a landmark presidential election in Turkey, Reuters reports.
Making a heart sign with his hands, which has become an emblem of his campaign, Kilicdaroglu called on his supporters to cast their votes without any concerns over electoral malpractice. He reassured huge crowds which had turned out to see him that his party had been working for "a full year-and-a-half" on what he called "ballot box security".
"Don't you dare say 'I will go to the polls, but what if my vote gets stolen'. For the first time ever, we've been working on ballot box security for a full year-and-a-half. It's been a whole year-and-a-half. We have observers and representatives keeping an eye on all ballot boxes," Kilicdaroglu stated.
"One more thing, (the government) turned our borders into a place where everybody comes and goes easily, we will fix that too. We will send all our Syrian brothers and sisters to their countries within two years," he added.
Kilicdaroglu has a narrow lead over Erdogan in the polls. If no candidate secures more than half of the votes in the first round, then a May 28 run-off will be held between the two leading candidates.
Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party counts the nationalist MHP as its main ally. The secularist CHP and five other parties form an opposition alliance that is expected to get support from the main Kurdish party HDP, giving it an edge in some polls.
